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Comments by Szymanowski


101. Whale Evolution

Comment #131280 by Szymanowski on February 22, 2008 at 7:11 am

Right. Next, please explain how bananas are actually fish :)

Terry Pratchett, The Hogfather:

Ponder Stibbons: "Botanically, [the banana is] a type of fish, sir. According to my theory it is cladisticaly associated with the Krullian pipefish, sir, which of course is also yellow and goes around in bunches or shoals."

102. Over half of Britons claim no religion

Comment #131274 by Szymanowski on February 22, 2008 at 6:56 am

Unfortunately the report isn't very clear, and the data is all incorporated into the prose. It's definitely about "religion" rather than "belief in God", but in other respects it's very vague.

However, other surveys and opinion polls, which measure "belief" or "practice", rather than "religious affiliation", produce significantly lower figures for the Christian denominations. In 2007, approximately two-thirds of the British either did not claim membership of a religion or said that they never attended a religious service, compared with 26 per cent in 1964. Amongst those who do actually claim to belong to a religion, the proportion who attends a Christian service regularly has been falling. Another 2007 research report on churchgoing in the United Kingdom indicated that 15.5 per cent attend a service at least once a month whereas 28 per cent were former churchgoers unlikely to return and 32 per cent have never been to church and are unlikely to do so. In comparison to Great Britain, there are significantly more regular churchgoers than average in Northern Ireland, i.e. 45 per cent attending a religious service at least once a month. Surveys have also revealed that religious belief is strongly related to age and generations, with young people far less religious than their elders. Furthermore, the total number of people affiliated to non-Christian religions has increased in recent years and for most of them their religion seems to be a more important factor than it is for Christians.

103. 'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed

Comment #130300 by Szymanowski on February 20, 2008 at 8:30 am

104. Why do we believe in God? 2m study prays for answer

Comment #129504 by Szymanowski on February 19, 2008 at 8:25 am

I would have thought that the fact that there is such a discrepancy in belief between, say Sweden and the USA, or between 18th Century England and modern-day England, that the 'nature or nuture' question has an obvious answer. Why are they throwing money at such a redundant topic?

I think that perhaps you are confusing belief in a supernatural deity with the particulars of different religions. It is obvious that "nurture" outweighs "nature" in this sense, but I don't think it's as obvious as the central belief, belief in God. There was a section about this in TGD, remember?
"Belief in God" - i.e. any god - varies massively from region to region too. I can see it's not as easy a question as particular religious affiliation, but it does seem rather obvious that atheism vs theism is a matter of nurture. Us cynics might say that it's a case of whether children are well educated in reason...

105. Why do we believe in God? 2m study prays for answer

Comment #129497 by Szymanowski on February 19, 2008 at 8:09 am

HA! The Templeton Foundation! And a psychologist who has explained his conclusions in detail before doing the experiments!

I'm glad it's not my £1.9m

106. Archbishop's 8 March centennial message: Let Sharia Law govern women's lives, Amen!

Comment #128636 by Szymanowski on February 17, 2008 at 1:36 pm

I don't understand the title of this article - it wasn't mentioned in the main text. Can anyone explain it?!

107. Machines 'to match man by 2029'

Comment #128511 by Szymanowski on February 17, 2008 at 9:13 am

This sounds great, but wasn't it predicted that we'd all be taking holidays on the moon and having tea parties with little green men by 1975?

108. My Saudi Valentine

Comment #126630 by Szymanowski on February 13, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Ten years ago, though, before the Internet and cellphones, we had less room to maneuver. Guys took their chances by handing out their land-line numbers to any nearby female, just in case there was an eligible young woman hidden under that shapeless abaya and niqab. I remember my mother yelling at boys who would knock on our car window and "number" her â€" offer her cards with their home numbers.


Yes, that niqab thing really does the job of stopping men feeling desire, doesn't it...

109. Postmodernism Disrobed

Comment #125739 by Szymanowski on February 12, 2008 at 12:56 am

Gethsemane:

Postmodernism is nothing but the negative rejection of these things, and is therefore not a "positive" body of theory on its own


The main problem, in my field at least, is that deconstruction sets up targets made of nothing but straw. We are assured that these meta-narratives exist and that, say, scientists of the modern era unquestionably believed in the truth of their discoveries. A 19th-century poem might be deconstructed for its sexist perspective against women, which is fine, but the deconstruction is supposedly legitimised by its specious claim that no other readers of the poem had discovered this heinous crime by the author. Deconstruction attempts to identify itself as going against commonly accepted beliefs, yet in doing so often falls flat on its face.

edit: oh dear, I was very tired when I wrote that!

alice_bell:
There is some value in postmodernism, at least as it relates to literature, hidden behind the waffle. This is perhaps due to the fact that, if you reduce postmodernism down to intelligible language, nothing of what it says about reading or writing is actually new. Mostly it goes on about literature not reflecting the real world. Obviously that is a truism; human experience is not a narrative. Similarly, it's a mistake to think that the self-reflexive kind of writing we term 'postmodern' is entirely innovative and cutting-edge and clever. Tristram Shandy is a postmodern novel.

Postmodernism in a broad sense is not worthless, just obvious. There are some narcissistic wackos linked to it, and their fringe theories have, unfairly, given the 'movement' a reputation for absurdity and silliness. Intelligent students of the arts, however, are surely able to pick out the useful aspects of postmodernism from the ludicrous. Moderation is the key, as with all things.
Excellent summary!

110. Hitchens and Boteach Debate on God

Comment #125304 by Szymanowski on February 11, 2008 at 8:08 am

I'm sure Hitchens is accused of being "strident" and "forthright"... although in this debate at least he was extremely calm, quiet and considered relative to his fiercely impassioned, hand-waving opponent.

111. Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science

Comment #125282 by Szymanowski on February 11, 2008 at 7:21 am

How about Calilasseia?!





(probably too shrill, actually...)

112. Conservative Rabbis to Vote on Resolution Criticizing Pope's Revision of Prayer

Comment #124797 by Szymanowski on February 10, 2008 at 9:39 am

From Red Dwarf

Holly: "And Cloister spake, "Lo, I shall lead you to Fyushal, and there we shall open a temple of food, wherein shall be sausages and doughnuts and all manner of bountiful things. Yea, even individual sachets of mustard. And those who serve shall have hats of great majesty, yea, though they be made of coloured cardboard and have humorous arrows through the top."
Lister: Does it say what happened to the rest of the Cats?
Holly: Holy wars. There were thousands of years of fighting, Dave, between the two factions.
Lister: What two factions?
Holly: Well, the ones who believed the hats should be red, and the ones who believed the hats should be blue.
Lister: Do you mean they had a war over whether the doughnut diner hats were red or blue?
Holly: Yeah. Most of them were killed fighting about that. It's daft really, innit?
Lister: You're not kidding. They were supposed to be green.

Holly: "And Cloister gave to Frankenstein the sacred writing, saying, 'Those who have wisdom will know its meaning.' And it was written thus: 'Seven socks, one shirt -'"
Lister: That's me laundry list! I lined the cat's basket with me laundry list!
Holly: The Blue Hats thought it was a star chart leading to the promised land.

Lister: This is terrible. Holy wars. Killing. They're just using religion as an excuse to be extremely crappy to each other.
Toaster: So, what else is new?

113. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #123558 by Szymanowski on February 7, 2008 at 10:48 am

It seems such a monumentally stupid thing to say that I suspect RW isn't being sincere. Might this be a cunning plan by the Archbishop to stir up some extra anti-Muslim sentiment?

114. Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules'

Comment #121438 by Szymanowski on February 3, 2008 at 12:03 pm

I'm a bit puzzled as to how The Telegraph has an apparent quotation in its headline: 'disobey hygiene rules', though it doesn't attribute this to anyone else in the article. 'Disobey' doesn't characterise correctly what the actual conflict was - the actual problem was 'objections' and 'difficulty in complying' - the headline smacks of old-fashioned media sensationalism to me.

What would be wrong with, say, sterilised long gloves which the doctors in question must pay for themselves? (i.e. either roll up your sleeves or buy gloves)

How would that solution be worse than letting young doctors quit?

115. Happy Birthday Josh Timonen!

Comment #120051 by Szymanowski on February 1, 2008 at 8:04 am

Happy birthday Josh! Ooh, the front page has been AJAX-ed. Richard - nice card... at least you're the most computer-literate Oxford lecturer I've met!

116. New atheists or new anti-dogmatists?

Comment #117048 by Szymanowski on January 28, 2008 at 6:48 am

Harris can slide between the terms "faith" and "religion", but his sophisticated treatment of spirituality makes it clear that his real target is the dogma of faith.

Dawkins and Hitchens are the two who most often conflate religion and faith in their use of language


Well, I thought it was absolutely 100% clear that their real target was the dogma of faith, as they have stated repeatedly, but perhaps some people can be slow on the uptake...!

117. Banks are helping sharia make a back-door entrance

Comment #116682 by Szymanowski on January 27, 2008 at 5:13 am

All that's happening is that banks, which are private companies, are offering MORE CHOICE in their "products".

Now, I take a rather low view of the banking industry, but equating MORE CHOICE with the imposition of Sharia Law on the population is just silly. Nobody's being forced into anything.

Seconded.

I fail to see the need to bend over backwards to Muslims, of which this is yet another example of.

It's an example of providing a product to suit a market. It's called capitalism, not "bending over backwards". For goodness's sake, if you don't like "sharia" accounts, don't get one!

I'm just waiting for a bank to provide a "Szymanowski" account, in which you deposit a minimum of 1p and get 100,000,000% interest. Your name has to be Szymanowski in order to qualify for the account.

118. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116678 by Szymanowski on January 27, 2008 at 4:17 am

Hah, fantastic caller!

119. Interview with Ian McEwan

Comment #114215 by Szymanowski on January 21, 2008 at 2:56 pm

America is meant to be a secular republic with a strong tradition of upholding all freedom of thought
Joseph McCarthy would disagree!

120. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113602 by Szymanowski on January 20, 2008 at 6:48 am

"freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend"

Oh yes it bloody well does!

But Wilders is being an idiot (pending viewing of the video) - there's nothing to be gained from burning a copy of the Koran unless you're freezing on a mountain top.

121. Ethical storm as scientist becomes first man to clone HIMSELF

Comment #113592 by Szymanowski on January 20, 2008 at 6:25 am

Classic Daily Mail standards of reporting, but it could have been worse.

Wait a minute, does that rhesus monkey have painted fingernails?!

122. Huckabee: Guns, God and rock'n'roll

Comment #106864 by Szymanowski on January 3, 2008 at 3:42 pm

"Let me tell you, I am getting tired of this negative campaigning," the actor said.


Er. Do his supporters not see the irony in this statement?

123. For the Love of Christ

Comment #101860 by Szymanowski on December 21, 2007 at 3:20 am

I'd love to see Hitch hit this guy over the back with a metal chair.

:)

124. This Week's Flea

Comment #100421 by Szymanowski on December 18, 2007 at 3:27 pm

Presumably the publisher can say to Xian bookshops: "Stock this... or be judged".

125. The Four Horsemen: on Christmas

Comment #100022 by Szymanowski on December 18, 2007 at 5:07 am

I'm not sure HD is necessary for four blokes chatting around a table. I'm not even sure that video is necessary for this, but I don't want to piss on your parade! Thanks for providing the clip and keep up the good work - this site is much appreciated!

*toddles off to download the audio version*

126. Good News: Both our Foundations are now Officially Recognized as Charities

Comment #72291 by Szymanowski on September 20, 2007 at 4:50 pm


This really is great news for the UK and the USA, but what can we do here in Australia.
We are experiencing the same growth of evangelistic movements (Hillsong) directed at the gullible youth of our great nation.
How can the RDF help save Australia from the scourge of society that threatens the truth being told.


What a shame. Especially in a land of such amazing 50,000-year-old stories about the Dreamtime, surely far more fulfilling and much more relevant to Australia than that dull new book about somebody being nailed to a tree in Israel 2,000 years ago.

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